| dc.description.abstract | Background: The constructivist epistemology highlights how optimal learning comes
from active involvement with the society and the surroundings by gaining experience.
To learn to coach can occur through an individual, relational and content knowledge
level by using formal, informal and non-formal educational sources. The coaches’ own
subjective view on their knowledge acquisition and learning have been investigated in
this research to understand their opinion on how they have gained the knowledge they
use in their coaching practice.
Method: A Q method of 45 opinions has been presented to 45 coaches from different
sports. The coaches considered and rank-ordered the statements through a set Q sorting
procedure. Three factors were extracted from the centroid factor analysis, and those
were further analysed through VariMax rotation.
Results: The three factors represent different viewpoints on the subject matter. Factor
A emphasised informal educational sources as experience, reflection and
communication as important for personal and content knowledge learning. Factor B
emphasised informal knowledge sources as experience and communication and formal
knowledge sources as important for personal and content knowledge learning. Factor C
highlighted formal studies as important for learning at a personal, relational and content
knowledge learning.
Conclusion: Even though there were many different options to choose from, most of the
coaches thought that the informal educational source experience was the preferred
method to gain knowledge from about their coaching job. This was a very interesting
found, and since the Q method cannot make clear cause and effect conclusions this
finding should be investigated further in future research with the use of both qualitative
and quantitative research methods. | nb_NO |
